intensity till the earthly part of us is consumed, and then leap upwards in one glorious flame to heaven. Let it vanish from the earth! What matter of dread or sorrow, if Heaven receives it and converts it into ethereal and everlasting brightness? And why, with such a prospect, -save as physical infirmity lays its hand upon us, why should we ever grow old? Why should feeling in us, why should divine philosophy, why should the contemplation and love of God and of goodness, ever grow old? Old to the themes which endless progress is to make for ever new? No. Let him be assured, to whom religious offices and contemplations grow dull and irksome by familiarity, that he has not yet caught the true spirit of that sublime vocation. No; the aged man, with all the maturer wisdom of experience and the purer fervor of piety, may stand up and plead the cause of God and of godlike virtue with an eloquence never given to his youthful vigor. Holy cause of virtue and God, which shall never die! Blessed cause of human happiness and hope, for which it is not too much to die! - for which 'to live is Christ, and to die is gain!' ART. V. — Contemplations of the Saviour; a Series of Extracts from the Gospel History, with Reflections, and Original and Selected Hymns. By S. GREENLEAF BULFINCH. Boston. Carter & Hendee. one. pp. 155. 1832. Ir we had been asked, before the publication of this unpretending but useful little volume, what book there wast which would furnish a series of Scripture lessons, accompan ied with meditations, sufficiently brief for the religious services of a family, we should not have been able to point to a single We can now point with pleasure to the Contemplations of the Saviour, by Mr. Bulfinch, as a work, which, so far as it goes, satisfactorily supplies a want which many have felt. The Extracts' give a connected view of the Saviour's life and ministry, according to the system of arrangement, or harmony, adopted by Dr. Carpenter, and are of a suitable length for introduction into the services of family worship. They are fifty in number, and to each one is appended a few simple and appropriate reflections, which are followed by a hymn. Both the reflections and the hymns may of course be omitted or introduced according to the circumstances of a family; but both will be found useful, at all times, for private reading and Sunday schools. Some of the original hymns we regard as real acquisitions to our stores of devotional poetry. One of these, toward the end of the volume, we will present to our readers, together with the reflections which precede it, as a specimen of the work, and an inducement to those who are in want of such a work, to make it their own immediately. The passage of Scripture to which the Reflections and Hymn refer, is that, from the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke, which relates the meeting of the Saviour, after his resurrection, with two of his disciples, as they journeyed to Emmaus. • REFLECTIONS. "Did not our heart burn within us by the way? May we not all look back upon hours in our own lives which answer to this description of the disciples' feelings? There are times when our hearts hold converse with a Being whom they do not comprehend, when a feeling of solemn thought comes over them, and they seem in the presence of something indescribably holy. It was thus with the disciples, as they trod, with their unknown master, the path to Emmaus. It is at such times that the Spirit of God is holding converse with our spirits. Let us not silence its whisperings by permitting the loud voice of the world to make them unheard; but in solitude, commune with our own hearts," and with our Maker ; " and be still." We shall find the thoughtlessness of our natures corrected by the exercise. We shall find virtuous principle acquiring strength, and the force of headlong impulse weakened. The things which before were hard to our minds in the dispensations of Providence, will become easy to understand, and doubt will give place to faith and adoring love; as the sadness and ignorance which hung over the minds of the disciples, gave way as the Saviour instructed them from the Scriptures, in the prophecies relating to himself. 'Hast thou not heard, 'midst forest glades, A voice from forth the eternal shades, 'And as, upon the sacred page, Hath not thy heart within thee burned? It was the voice of God, that spake And bade each worthier thought awake, 'Voice of our God, oh yet be near ! In low, sweet accents whisper peace : Direct us on our pathway here, Then bid in heaven our wanderings cease.' pp. 147-149. Few hymns have come under our notice which possess more of a contemplative tenderness, a deeper spirit of devotion, a sweeter flow of numbers than this. And so pure, so holy, is the tone which pervades and characterizes the whole volume. ART. VI.—1. An Abridgment of Elements of Criticism, by the Honorable HENRY HOME of KAMES.' Edited by JOHN FROST, A. M. Philadelphia. Towar & Hogan. 1831. 12mo. pp. 300. 2. Outlines of History; embracing a concise History of the World, from the earliest Period to the Pacification of Europe in 1815. Second American Edition, with Additions and a Set of Questions for Examination of Students, by JOHN FROST, A. M. Philadelphia, Carey & Lea. Boston. Carter, Hendee, & Babcock. 1831. 12mo. pp. 466. 3. History of Ancient and Modern Greece; illustrated with Maps and Copperplate Engravings. Edited by JOHN FROST. Philadelphia. Boston. Lincoln & Edmands. 1831. 8vo. pp. 358. THOSE teachers who are looking out for really useful and sensible school-books, will do well to examine those which have lately been edited by Mr. Frost, the titles of three of which we have copied above. He seems to go on the principle, and we are ready to go along with him, that it is better sometimes to recur to old text-books, and correct and improve them by the light which comes from use and acquaintance, than to be perpetually seeking after the unknown, and inundating our shops and seminaries with new inventions and systems. We confess ourselves to be pretty nearly tired with discoveries in elementary education; not because we are unfriendly to any positive advancements in learning, but because we have seen so many pretended advancements so frequently cross and oppose each other, and turn out to be superficial conceits rather than valuable improvements. Nearly all the half-educated people in our country, think they can enlighten the world on the subject of education. We must take the liberty to believe that many of them are mistaken in this matter. The books before us are evidently intended for the highest classes in schools. We remember Kames's Elements of Criticism' very well. We once studied it in two octavo volumes, and were much interested in the study. The quotations from the poets are so frequent and good, and the critcisms are so lively, that a youth can hardly fail to have his mind engaged in the book, formidable as the subject may at first have appeared to him. But in its original form it was too long and bulky for a school-book, and Mr. Frost has done well in abridging it. He has done better still in expunging some improper quotations. A little more care, and a little more reduction, would fit the work still more completely for its end. One fault of the criticisms is, that they are sometimes hypercritical, and want generosity. When they are so, they might well be omitted or modified. In running over the book we accidentally met with what we take to be two contradictory criticisms on the self-same passage in Shakspeare. The first is from page 23 of Mr. Frost's Abridg ment. The same communication of passion obtains in the relation of principal and accessory. Pride, of which self is the object, expands itself upon a house, a garden, servants, equipage, and every accessory. A lover addresses the glove belonging to his mistress as a "Sweet ornament that decks a thing divine.” Veneration for relics has the same natural foundation. A temple is in a proper sense an accessory to the deity to which it is dedicated. Diana is chaste so is her temple, and the very icicle which hangs on it. "The noble sister of Publicola, The moon of Rome; chaste as the icicle And hangs on Dian's temple." Coriolanus. Act v. Sc. 3.' Here the passage is cited with approbation. But turn to page 178. "The strongest objection that can lie against a comparison is, that it consists in words only, not in sense. Such false coin, or spurious wit, does extremely well in burlesque; but is far below the dignity of the epic, or of any serious composition. "The noble sister of Poplicola, The moon of Rome; chaste as the icicle That 's curdled by the frost from purest snow, There is evidently no resemblance between an icicle and a woman, chaste or unchaste;' &c. Now, with all due deference to Lord Kames, this last criticism, which we have not patience to quote entire, is hypercriticism and nonsense, And in neither case does he seem to apprehend that the true beauty of the passage lies in the accumulation of images of purity. Valeria is chaste, not only as an icicle, but the icicle that is curded from purest snow, and hangs, not on any common place, but on the temple of the goddess of chastity. In the second quotation, too, 'curded is printed curdled,' and Publicola,' Poplicola.' What is a boy to think of all this? Such blemishes might be taken away. 6 The Outlines of History' is Dr. Lardner's book, with questions for examination annexed by Mr. Frost. And a capital book it is, to give either boy or man an idea of the relation between particular histories and the history of the world. In this view it deserves a place in private libraries as well as in schools. It has nearly the brevity of a chronological table, and the interest of narrative besides. The History of Ancient and Modern Greece' is, we believe, the only book which gives the whole history of that country in a form suitable for the use of schools. The an |